[masraum]

The guy that I spoke to Sat said R38.

I spoke to 2 guys today. 1 said R30, the other said that for this area, with an electric furnace, R49, or with a gas furnace, R38.

So that's 2 votes for R38.

The big difference is that around here, the insulation is more about keeping heat out than keeping heat in.

I guess based on what I've heard, I probably don't need to go above R38.

The guy this weekend quoted IIRC, $640 to do both the attic and the garage (plus another 20% off). And then $1300 to put in a solar powered attic fan.

1 guy today quoted $936 to insulate both the garage and attic, and then $950 for a commercial solar attic fan

The second guy that I spoke to today, said that he doesn't recommend insulating the attic over the garage. He said that insulating the garage will actually make it hotter since it is not conditioned space, and that will cause problems with the paint and drywall. He quoted $710 for the attic insulation. He mentioned something about vents in the rafters (I believe to make sure that they still get the intake air from the soffits). He said that they can do some sort of passive square vent for $125 a pop or they can do a solar powered attic fan.

So, I've got these bids

$640 to do the insulation (R38) for both garage and attic. $1300 for a solar attic fan

$936 for the garage and attic insulation (R30). $950 for a solar attic fan

$710 for just the attic (R38) (plus some extra small stuff), recommended against doing the garage, and will do a solar attic fan, but didn't get a cost.

Out of curiousity, looking at these quotes, do you have any thoughts?

I'm sort of leaning towards the guy that recommended against the garage. What he said about insulating the garage made some sense. I'm sure some of the heat is coming from the attic over the garage, but I'll still get heat into the garage, and with the insulation, that heat will take longer to dissipate. I guess what I really need is some sort of vent to move air out of the garage.